|
Article Excerpt
From Many Gods to One: Divine Action in Renaissance Epic by Tobias Gregory. U. of Chicago Press, 2006. Pp. 247. $30.00.
The epic narrator of Paradise Lost sets out on an ambitious course of pursuing "Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime" (1.15-16), but most students of Milton know that the masterpiece is one in a long line of attempts to present religious or cultural history through the vehicle of the "long poem." As a history of the genre, Tobias Gregory's From Many Gods to One could justifiably find a place on the bookshelf of any student, scholar, or teacher of epics and romances, including Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, Petrarch's Africa, Vida's Christiad, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, and Paradise Lost.
Gregory pursues his elegantly simple thesis throughout his 224-page argument in a manner that is both informative and economical. In imitating the poets of antiquity, Christian writers of the Renaissance were faced with an enormous literary problem. If the heart of the epic is a commensuration between mortals and divinity, how could they balance the "theological requirement" of representing an omniscient, omnipotent deity with the "narrative requirement" of actually telling a good story (41)? If the Christian God is always in some way present and uniquely capable of solving anything, what remains of the traditional contingencies that allow an author to maintain a reader's attention? While Gregory's scope of reference extends from the beginnings of Yahwist monotheism to the contemporary Left Behind series, he shows a great sense of control in developing the trajectory of his text, which is organized around a "problem-solution" framework. His introduction and first chapter explain the "narrative advantages" of polytheism not available to Christian...
|
|
More articles from Philological Quarterly
Outward Appearances: The Female Exterior in Restoration London., January 01, 2007
Writers, Readers, and Reputations: Literary Life in Britain 1870-1918., January 01, 2007
Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.
Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication
name or publication date.
About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company
analysis or best practices in managing your organization,
Goliath can help you meet your business needs.
Our extensive business information databases empower business
professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible,
authoritative information they need to support their business
goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting,
company research or defining management best practices -
Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.
|
|
